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I thought that ZFS's license (and I believe even the in-kernel implementation uses some of Oracle's ZFS code) prevented you from distributing the driver for linux because it was not compatible with the GPL?

Comment

I thought that ZFS's license (and I believe even the in-kernel implementation uses some of Oracle's ZFS code) prevented you from distributing the driver for linux because it was not compatible with the GPL?

I'll refer you to ryao's informative post from the Sabayon forums: link

Originally posted by ryao

there is a great deal of FUD about licensing, but it is rather simple. The CDDL and GPL licenses are both restrictive licenses and the combination of them causes problems for people wanting to use pieces of code exclusively available under one license with pieces of code exclusively available under the other in the same binary. In the case of the kernel, this prevents us from distributing ZFS as part of the kernel binary. However, there is nothing in either license that prevents us from distributing it in the form of a binary module or in the form of source code. No one who has claimed otherwise has so far been able to find the conflicting provisions of the CDDL and GPL that prevent this form of usage.

With that said, the nature of the CDDL-GPL conflict means that many of the rules that apply to binary kernel modules also apply to ZFS. Many Linux devices, including all Android devices, use binary kernel modules and it is quite commonly accepted that this is legal (although kernel developers hate it) so long as they are not part of the kernel binary. If this were not the case, it is quite probable that we would see lawsuits over this practice because everyone who has made code contributions to the version of Linux used in the device would be able to sue. A similar situation involving the Andrew Filesystem occurred 10 years ago where Linus Torvalds publicly stated that it was perfectly legal to distribute it as a kernel module: